Rob Wallis
If you stray off the track
in pursuit of the lyrebird you heard,
segue of magpie/kookaburra/parrot,
brushing fronds from your face,
finding the bird’s call
behind you instead of ahead,
black globular eyes
tracking you down,
you may experience a shudder
of panic as the forest
closes in. Mountain ash,
tree ferns, cockatoos sweeping
the sky inhale your presence.
Wind slaps strips of bark
against the trunks, tapping out
resined silence. Move into this stillness,
into this rhythm with your own song.
You are not lost, you have
found a part of yourself
as ancient as trees,
as luminous as words.
Rob Wallis’ third volume of poetry, Man In A Glass Suit (Mark Time Books) was published in 2011. His poems have appeared in Woorilla, The Mozzie, Poetry Monash, Wet Ink, Blue Dog and Westerly. His awards include the FAW John Shaw Neilson Poetry Award and the MPU Martin Downey Urban Realism Prize.
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